Sunday, 20 October 2013

This Week in Whisk(e)y #1

We get a fair few interesting press releases here at TimeforWhisky, and usually try to feature them with our own spin, experiences or comments. Sometimes though, they come thick and fast, and we just don't have time to do them all justice.

So we've decided to take a leaf out of some other excellent whisky blogs, and feature a "PR roundup" every now and then - basically a wrapup of relevant press releases we've received in the previous week. So on with it then...

Jameson whiskey Honours Sydney in "Love the City" CampaignA while ago I read about a new Jameson travel retail (aka duty free) release, featuring 8 iconic cities. The good news is one of those 8 selected cities is Sydney, and Jameson are offering a pretty great prize as part of a related competition...

"...All eight iconic cities (Sydney, Amsterdam, Bangkok, Dublin, London, Moscow, Paris and Singapore) have been honoured with a bespoke Jameson¹s label as part of this limited collection of travel exclusives. The special Sydney edition of Jameson is now available for a limited time as SYD Tax & Duty Free at $38.99.

When consumers purchase a bottle from the "Love the City" range, they are invited to enter a Facebook photo competition for a chance to win a retro-inspired travel trunk, which doubles up as a drinks cabinet and contains all eight "Love The City" limited editions along with four bottles of Jameson Original. They just have to post a picture of their limited edition bottle or the city they love on Facebook at www.jamesonwhiskey.com/cityedition"

Granted the liquid inside is standard Jameson, but these sort of releases are a fun way to engage fans in a specific region, and at $38.99 it's not exactly going to break the bank.

The Wild Rover launches the "Campbell Corner Whisk(e)y Co-operative (CCWC)
Continuing with the Irish theme, Sydney's The Wild Rover (see our review here) are launching an innovative new Whisk(e)y club starting in November. Stretching beyond just tastings or discounts, the club involves an element of gamification, whereby members have to get through their personal "inventory" before being granted access to rare, discounted whiskies:

"The CCWC is a consumer-based group of like-minded individuals who all
have an appreciation of whisky and wish to try, learn about and discover their
favourite drams. It is a two part offering focussing on enjoying whisky, with
education a secondary thought.

The Wild Rovers back bar plays host to over a hundred whiskies from
around the world and some these are featured in a personalised card called
‘your inventory of whiskies’. Your Inventory is a personal checklist of 50
drams gracing The Wild Rovers back bar. One of each need to be purchased in
order to qualify as a ‘Buff’, giving access to purchase from The Wild Rovers
‘reserve selection’ made up of rare, hard to find whiskeys at a massively
discounted rate. There are also benefits to signing up your friends and
colleagues including passes to whisk(e)y events and bottles of the Co-operatives
favourite drams.

The second part to the CCWC is a tasting event focussed on developing
each persons interest with offering an experience rather than simply a tasting.
Both international and domestic guests from the wide whiskey world are invited
to present to the Co-op each month. It will most likely be on the first Monday
of each month, or whenever the international presenters are in the country.

A joining fee of $25 includes a shot of either Bushmills 21yo Madeira
Wood or Balvenie 14yo Roasted Malt that can be checked off Your Inventory of
Whiskies, invitations to the monthly tasting event and opportunities to receive
bottles of Whiskey through the ambassador program.

For more information regarding the upcoming launch of the Campbell
Corner Whisk(e)y Co-operative please email manager@thewildrover.com.au."

No word yet on what the massively discounted rate is, but given you have to work through 50 drams to get there, presumably it'll be decent.